hello hello hello. welcome to the show. it's wednesday, your favorite day. just teasing. i'm robin meade, and you are my favorite viewer. the nation is about to honor its service members who put their lives on the line for their country. you're going to hear what celebrations and remembrances are planned for this veterans day today. an airline pilot apparently had one too many before he showed up for work. what happened minute before takeoff in the cockpit. plus a court has just decided whether michael jackson father can have a piece of the singer's estate. you know what, if you have someone in your life who has served in the military, this is

the day to say thank you. it is veteran's day, the day that's meant to honor people who served in the military, many of whom give the ultimate sacrifice. a u.s. pilot was yanked off of a flight minutes before takeoff because a co-worker thought he might be drunk. erwin vermont washington was set to fly united jet from london chicago monday. british police arrested him when he flunked a breathalyzer. washington is grounded for now. an airline spokesperson says that united's policies is among the strictest in the industry. we have no tolerance for violation of this well established policy. the mastermind before a sniper attacks that terrorized the nation in 2002 said nothing before his execution last night. john allen mohammed died by lethal injection at 9:11 eastern. this the ambulance that took away his remains. some witnesses, relatives witnessed the prosecution. so did the prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction. >> he died very peace fully,

much more than most of his victims. i felt a sense of closure and i hope they did, too. i think they looked for to that and i hope they have solace by virtue of his execution. >> mohammed got the death sentence for the shooting death of dean harold meyers. but actually the d.c. area attacks left ten people dead. mohammed's accomplice lee boyd malvo is serving life in prison. the suspect in the ft. hood shootings army major hasan is refusing to answer questions. his attorneys say he's coherent but not talking about the attack. he's under guard in intensive care. investigators are trying to figure out what provoked the attack. they went on pause as 12,000 attended the memorial for the 12 soldiers and one retired soldiers killed in the shooting on monday. president obama promised justice. >> your loved ones endure

through the life of our nation. their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. >> the president and first lady placed presidential coins in front of the battlefield crosses. the tributes met with an eerie silence. >> specialist hunt. >> especially when they starting calling the names of the soldier, you know, unanswered. that was a very sad moment. >> the shooting left 42 people wounded. many have faced multiple deployments. if you want to see amazing video. come here, bring your coffee over here. look at this. wow! it kept coming.

a local news crew filming a rock side. a geologist warned people there might be a second slide and moved everybody out of the way. u.s. highway 64 may be closed for a week. there's not a barrier you can put up to stop that from happening. comments made toward a woman apparently sparked a fight that led to the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football player. this is a follow-up according to police of a differences is where we're getting this. larry smith in for rafer has more. >> he'll appear in court friday accused of murdering jasper howard of the 21 page document reveals one of howard's teammates disrespected a woman at a school sponsored dance. that is what authorities believe sparked a dance broken up by police. a second fight started outside later. that's when howard was stabbed. three other people faced lesser charges. none of the football players involved in either fight have been charged. robin. thank you.

president obama is considering three options for the war in afghanistan. sources tell us he's expected to talk about it today. they include the possible deployment of 30,000 more u.s. troops. in a new cnn research poll, 42% of the americans support sending more troops. only 32 think afghanistan will eventually have a stable democratic government. >> soupy, soggy. >> check out the rain and cloud cover across the eastern seaboard. here is what it looks like. a lot of rain, wind around us. some of the rainfall totals impressive to say the least. columbus, georgia, almost 6 inches of rain since i started yesterday morning. birmingham, alabama, 3.88. even gainesville, 3.82 inches of rain.

the rain continues around the carolinas and virginia, now maryland, too, and philadelphia might get showers. that's about it. heaviest rain buford, i-95, this region here. savannah, you'll pick up rain and thunderstorms, too. not severe. heavy rainmakers. see that off and on. heavy shield out of charlotte going through piedmont into the raleigh area. durham getting decent rain. greensboro moving northward through virginia into washington, d.c. it's going to be steady for the entire morning. if you think we're not going to see delays in the airport, i think we are. we're going to see a lot of them. atlanta, d.c., as the clouds hang in low, they are going to hang in tough, too. what about warnings for flooding. we have them there. bright shaded green areas, atlanta, greenville, back towards charlotte. dark shaded green, those are the flash flood watches. the reason pretty easy. a lot of rain potentially there. talking maybe as much as five inches of rain near the beltway of washington, d.c. right now thunderstorms in the

southern end of that circulation. can you see it coming out of cape coral, miami, off and on for the day as well. interesting day for the east coast. >> thanks. we're getting a lot of comments from you the viewer about veterans day. you might have a salute you want to give out. go to our facebook page. if you don't know how, go to cnn.com/robin, there's a facebook icon and it will take you there. no signing up. black friday is around the corner. walmart is making big changes to prep for the big day. new information on the suspect in the ft. hood shootings. what he said in a controversial power point presentation.

in our salute to the troops today we're doing more salutes than usual because it is veterans day. so this salute is for airman first class john meyer, his wife and son. >> >> we love you, and we hope to see you for christmas. can you say love you daddy. >> love you. >> love you. >> love you, too, daddy. >> we love you, john. bye. >> be still my heart. that is so sweet. if you have somebody in the service you want to salute them, go to cnn.com/robin. you know what, here is what you're saying, many of our viewers on facebook. hazel says, thanks to all our servicemen and women in the past and present. may god bless and keep you safe. pat says, thanks to all troops. remember all the ones who are not with us now. if you want to comment, go to

cnn.com/robin. hit the little facebook icon, it will take you to the facebook page. the man accused of trying to extort $2 million from david letterman says he was just trying to sell him a screen play. joel halderman asked the judge to throw it out claiming it was a big misunderstanding. letterman's lawyers say the move was blackmail no matter how the lawyer tries to dress it up. a couple was rushing to the hospital for the birth of their son. the baby could not wait so the mom gives birth in the front seat of the car. that's new in 15 minutes. senators plan a hearing next week to see if the tragedy at ft. hood could have been prevented. new information is coming out about the alleged shooter major nadal hasan. so he didn't hide his religious belief. >> not at all. a power point in 2007 is where

we take you as hasan spoke to army doctors as part of his residency in psychiatry. instead of a medical lecture, hasan talked about islam. the power point presentation published in the "washington post," you see it here, frequently cited the koran. he claimed muslims should be able to claim conscientious objectors to prevent adverse events. >> he was communicating with a radical muslim cleric. did the pentagon know about that? >> the, cleric is anwar al awlaki. he's known for encouraging troops to kill u.s. troops. he communicated with him 20 times. the pentagon says they had no idea until after ft. hood shootings. the communications were turned over to a joint terrorism task force last year. the investigator who looked into them at that time determined

they were for a research paper that hasan was writing. robin, never -- they never sent that information any farther up the chain. they dropped it. >> really interesting. richard, thank you. >> sure. >> do you remember the story of a walmart employee trampd to death to death by a huge crowd when the store opened for the friday after thanksgiving for shopping? well, new protections may keep you safer this year. walmart has some big changes planned for crowd management. our money expert, jennifer westhoven, has this for you. and of course walmart wants you to think about fun and safety and to make sure that the headlines about black friday are great, here are the changes. hot, hot door busters, cds and dvds. if you're somebody who wants to shop for this, here is the big

change. instead of waiting outside and when the doors open and everybody stampeding in, it will be open overnight on thanksgiving. you can meander in and go in the store on a line supervised. no cutting. that's somebody that gets everybody else on the line very angry and more disposed toward aggression. then when the big sales start at 5:00 a.m. you're in a calm line inside. no running necessary. a lot of americans would like to throw wall streeters who might have connected to the wall street collapse straight into jail. do not correct. in the first criminal case related to the implosion in the economy a jury found men inning. prosecutors argued two men who were hedge fund managers at bear stearns that they had lied to investors and covered up some of the risks. the injury found them not guilty on all counts. the defense argued there was no way they could have known the entire subprime mortgage market was going to implode.

do not pass go. >> do not collect $200. >> sometimes just smash them up together. >> what's going on, jennifer? >> hey, speaking of fast, not here. >> atlanta, biggest airport in the united states, delays because of low clouds, light rain and wind picking up. here are remnants from ida, south carolina, north carolina, georgia, atlanta light rain. heavier downpours near charlotte stretches toward rdu. that's raleigh. what about the delays. here is what we have. so far nothing early. we'll get that pretty soon. atlanta, charlotte, one hour more. new york city metros, philly, cincinnati, watch for gusty winds. 30 minute to one hour delays. washington, d.c., orlando, thunderstorms, 30 minutes to one hour delay there. possibility fof delay tampa and miami and slowdown in seattle, san francisco. low clouds, 30 minutes to an hour across the west coast. more in a little bit. could be the final chapter of the bizarre love triangle

between star crossed astronauts. what's ahead for lisa nowak after she pleaded guilty for attacking a rival lover. sammy sosa insists he's not trying to lighten his skin. let's look at the picture. why he says he's looking so different.

hi, i'm from new york. i'm giving a shout for all the ones out serving our country. right now we are thinking about you and we love you. take care, blessed thing. god love you. >> a lot of viewers with the same sentiment on this ved rans da -- veterans day. thank you, veterans. a hydroelectric dam had problems. this happened in brazil. power was out in paraguay,

uruguay. some are concerned what will world will think because the olympics and world cup are coming there. a former astronaut is getting probation for her attack on a romantic rival. i know you remember this story. lisa nowak pleaded guilty to reduced charges for confront ag woman in an airport parking lot. reports say she drove from houston to orlando and followed shipman to her car. shipman says she is still haunted by what happened. >> i know in my heart when lisa nowak attacked me she was going to kill me. it was in her eyes. a blood chilling expression of limitless rage and glee. >> yikes. well, in the plea lisa nowak cannot have any contact with shipman. she was sentenced to a year of probation and 50 hours community service. she was facing some serious jail time if she had been convicted of the original charges. a number of veterans day events are in the morning

skpreps planner. janet napt napolitano. have you seen sammy sosa recently? sammy looks really different. some are saying it's not just because he stopped playing. what is it because? hi, larry. >> the issues, sammy sosa doing steroids kind of thing. this has nothing to do with allegations of that. he's denying he is trying to lighten his skin as the former king of pop michael jackson did. soon to be 41-year-old, do you think he looks different? yes, dramatically different than six months ago. that picture may on the left, a recent picture on the right. he said he used a cosmetic cream for years to soften skin.

that combined with bright tv lights and grammy awards where the picture was taken made his skin look lighter. he wouldn't give the name of the cream he uses when he was asked. >> hmm. kite be he's out of the sun since he's not playing ball? >> not to that degree. i'm not a doctor, but i don't know. from a college dropout to multimillionaire, did all those hours playing poker pay off. world series of poker and a purse worth $8.5 million. this tournament began in july with 160 participants. his parents weren't happy with the college decision back then of course they have softened their stance. blackhawks wear special camouflage jerseys during warmups. jerseys auctioned off and given to charity, the proceeds will. the team will honor 50 military members and their guests this evening. joe montana, once star for the 49ers. guess hutch he's selling his

property for? $49 million bucks. if you put 20% down, 30 year, 6% payment for the mortgage, monthly payment would be $245,000 a month. wow. >> wow, that's right. he's the one that wore pantyhose. >> no, that was joe namath. >> sorry, joe. @@@@@@@@@

honoring military members past and present on this veterans day today. president obama will take part in a ceremony at arlington national cemetery. many other countries honoring their vets as well. for them the holiday primarily marks the signing of a truce to end world war i. 300 h1n1 vaccines have arrived at the guantanamo bay military prison? well, the pentagon says no detainees will get them until high priority troops and health care workers have been vaccinated. so far there aren't even enough doses available to do that. an amber alert has been issued for five-year-old shanai,

a davis in north carolina. the mother says they lost saw her early yesterday. police say they found no evidence of foul play. investigators have been searching areas nearby wooded areas. those are some of our headlines today. thirty minutes past the hour. morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. hope you're doing well today. a city-sized army post came to a halt for a solemn ceremony yesterday. 15,000 people came to pay their respects to 12 soldiers and one retired soldier shot to death at ft. hood last thursday. president obama promised justice for the victims' families. he and the first lady placed presidential coins in front of the battlefield crosses. the post commander also spoke. you will never be accustomed to losing one of our own but we can more easily accept it when it happens on foreign soil against a known enemy. ft. hood has lost 545 from its formations in iraq and

afghanistan. but never did we expect to pay such a high price at home. a place where soldiers feel secure. even so, soldiers do what soldiers do best. they take care of each other in time of need. >> there are also new developments in the investigation into the shootings. correspondent richard lui joins us with more on that. >> they showed up at the texas mosque where the leader worshipped. this is a week later after the incident. they wouldn't say what they were looking for, to answer your question but they searched through a trash bin outside the center in killeen. the president had to leave to sign what and to be a search warrant. leaders of the mosque have condemned this attack. the fbi said major hasan was acting alone and his attendance at that mosque is a part of their reasoning for thinking that. >> terrorism experts say jihadists usually try to blend

in so they don't attract attention. hasan often wore traditional muslim clothing like you see in this video and attended prayers daily. one criminal profilers agrees with this fbi theory. >> a lot of people are jumping to the conclusion because this man spouted violent islamic ideology that this is a terrorist attack. he was simply a lone guy with issues, psychopact behavior and wanted toting back to society and took it out on his workplace like most do. >> those has knew him back up the idea he was a loner. they say he had few, if any, friends and they were unable to match him what wife. >> richard, thank you so much. we have more angles on the investigation richard is following as well later on in the morning. new laws to protect gays and lesbians in salt lake city got support that might surprise some. mormon church backing ordinance to discriminate against housing

and employment. church leaders say the laws passed by the city council won't impose on traditional marriage. last year the church came under fire to pass the california initiative banning gay marriage. this is much better than a pay raise, don't you think? boss with the extra mile to save an employee. not just his job but life. a liquor store manager in pennsylvania gave his co-workers one of his kidneys. he wasn't the only one who volunteered. two other co-workers were tested. i said, well, if it didn't work for them, i would try. and i kept passing all the tests. >> it was a really touching thing to me to hear something like that, not just one but multiple people were willing to go through something like that for me. >> both men are doing just fine now. those stories amaze me. such a great story. >> i was thinking they work at a liquor store. at least it wasn't a liver problem, kidney problem.

>> unbelievable. don't even look my way, by the way. just kidding, of course. >> 34 minutes past the hour. did you hear him, he said he would. >> this weather brought by tylenol, feel better. what's going on across the region, heavy rain. peeling through georgia getting towards south carolina and stretching through the rest of the mid-atlantic. it goes all the way towards d.c. let me zero to the heaviest rain squall. hilton head and buford. i-95 heavily traveled highway. wet, raining hard for the next few hours. all the action moving to the east. actual energy from old ida still out there. reforms as a pressure center in south carolina this afternoon. it's going to gain a little energy as the cold front moves as well. more energy off the atlantic. we could see a major coastal type storm for the weekend for areas around cape hatteras, rolling in towards delmar peninsula. a lot of wind through the mid-atlantic starting today and really ending up over on sunday. a tough couple of days.

heavy rain this morning. pointing to piedmont towards raleigh. towards d.c., decent. showers overhead now. tough times over mason dixon lines. dry air. a little light rain activity there. again, not heavy stuff you're getting down to the south. look at flash flood watches and warnings. dark green, warnings in light green, you because of the rain we've seen over the last 24 hours. cold front out to the west channeling in the moisture so winds out of the southwest, miami, see thunderstorms come from the west and move to the east. that's something to watch. out west looks at the clouds, around california through the pacific northwest. snow is out there for the cascades. get to that in a half hour. >> gloomy day for them, too. >> middle of the country looks fantastic. it's the coast. >> all right. hey, thank you. >> yeah. >> you know, a teenager spent two nights trapped on a chunk of ice. rescuers were able to reach him but not before something went dangerously wrong for them.

time for a salute to the troops. today we're doing more than our usual because it's veterans day. so we're doing a lot of salutes today from you. today's salute is from a soldier we met when i was at ft. benning visiting troops there. this is to his friend serving in iraq. >> hi, robin. i'm richard at ft. benning. i want to give a shout out to my friends. major ron and major rickly over serving iraq. thanks, guys for what you're doing and taking care of our soldiers. god bless, have a great day. see you when you get back. >> wouldn't it be great if they got to see that. if you have somebody in the service you want to salute them,

cnn.com/robin. here is what many are saying on facebook about veterans day. richard says -- by the way, special happy birthday to my older brother, he writes gary. teresa's message short and to the point, thank you for my freedom. share your message, there's a ling on my home page cnn.com/robin. that will take you to facebook. we'll read them all morning. how is this for rush deliver y. a woman gave birth in the front seat of her truck while her husband was driving to the hospital in florida. not comfortable. the couple says they got lost on the way to the hospital and their son evan wasn't going to wait. >> it was right when we passed tropicana field is when she came out. >> she hit me very hardly on this arm. i looked down and there he was. >> uh-oh. they say evan will get the truck

when he's 16. he'll get the same truck in which he was born. somebody needs to get a gps. >> that's what i was thinking. >> get a gpsing to to the hospital. >> maybe make your husband do a practice run to the hospital. >> a senator came out swinging with his plan to keep your money safe with much tougher regulations. the senate banking committee chairman christopher dodd is saying it's a long time coming. see what you think about it. money expert jennifer westhoven. >> a lot of different ideas, thanks, robin, to change the way things were done, to prevent another financial collapse. dodd's view is the banks -- we just learned the hard way the banks can't be trusted to oversee themselves. the banks didn't live up to their responsibilities. his proposal is to strip the fed from oversight, take it away from the fed and give it to a bunch of new government agencies. that's from this morning's "washington post." dodd says it's necessary to protect the economy. >> we saw over the last number of years when they took on

consumer protection responsibilities and regulation of bank holding companies, it was an abysmal failure. >> that's not necessarily a democratic party line, just in case you're thinking about that. his plan puts him at odds with the white house. the president still wants the fed in the lead of banking reform, as long as the fed steps up the job. you know shoplifting is a problem for stores. but you're thinking i'm honest, that doesn't affect you. all those thieves are costing you. $435 a year on average. $400 bucks. global retail group says that's what stores have to charge extra to try and make up for the loss. shoplifting in the u.s. 9% in the last year because of the recession. stolen items, perfume, ipods, things easy to stuff in the pocket. at grocery stores the most stolen tough is fresh meat and cheese. really? hey, that is ground beef in your

pocket? watch out for people looking overloaded. >> yeah. different. all right, thank you. last night on "the joy behar show," she welcomed actress carrie fisher. she was very candid about her failed marriages. >> your second husband left you for another man, of course your bipolar. >> what's great about being bipolar, all that would feel bad for just anybody, i get it dialed up. >> i know you do. you turn all of that into comedy, which is the greatest gift you can give yourself in my opinion. >> the best alchemy it is. what, do i want to feel bad? >> catch joy behar at 9:00 eastern. some kids tried to get a little kitty out of a tight spot, then they had to call in the experts.

hey, guys. hope you're having a good safe trip. thinking about you, prayers are with you, may god bless. >> thank you. salutes across the board,

because it is veterans day. veterans, thank you. what a survival story for one teenager. he spent two nights trapped on an ice flow in the arctic. he was forced to shoot a polar bear that got too close. rescuers found him monday. then four of them got trapped when the ice shifted. they ended up dragging their boat two and a half miles across the ice. the world's largest salvation army kettle has gone up in a city that needs a lot of help. the kettle made up of 25,000 lights is in a park in detroit. it will be lighted november 20th to kick off the fund-raising campaign. the salvation army tells the detroit free press said demand for services up 60%. they hope to raise more than $7 million. rescuers had to be called in to free a cat in a sticky situation. she had somehow managed to get her little head stuck in a 3 inches drainpipe. kids found her and tried their best to help her out. >> he was really, really hurt.

and we had to put water on it to try to get out. but it couldn't really get out. >> did he say we had to pour water on it. i'm sure the cat liked that. animal control officers gave it a try. they did get the kitty cart out and said she was not hurt. some muggers returned his wallet when they found he was in the military. they forced him to lay down, put a gun to his neck. when they saw his military id they thanked him for his service and apologized. at least they had some respect for the guy. they are giving some respect to him. michael vick gets a win in court. >> the judge ruled vick could keep $16 million in bonus paid. appeals judge backed the decision much to the chagrin of

nfl and falcons. he earned it before the conviction in 2007. an nfl spokesman says the decision will likely change the way the league writes bonuses into player contracts. they're off, they're on, no, they're off again. o'neal has filed divorce from center shaquille o'neal. the couple was married just shy of seven years and they have four children together. shaq filed for divorce in 2007. the two apparently had reconciled. that seems to have now fallen apart. when will guys learn? league officials read blogs, too. dwight howard, the orlando magic center, he's been fined $15,000 for his comments on officiating on his blog. they weren't positive. the all-star center and olympic gold medalist was complaining after he fouled out of a game in detroit after playing 16 minutes. let's call them air jordans for the ladies. just in time for christmas. come on, your gal would leave these. the famous sneakers are an inspiration for these colorful high heels.

robin is online. that's the ones robin is looking at there. >> $65. just a fraction of the real air jordan sneakers. >> are these on an auction site. >> they are selling these. >> i've got to say they are ugly. >> think so? fashion statement. come on, be the first on your block. trip down the street. try to walk in these things. >> looks like high heel moon boots. a woman went to mcdonalds and came home a rich woman. how she turned a cup of tea into a million dollars. i hope there's not a lawsuit involved. some banks are letting their customer spend as much as they want but money expert clark howard warns it may cost you way more in fees than you're willing to pay. >> a lot of people because they've been burned by credit cards have switched to debit cards. that's where it has a visa or mastercard logo on it but when you use it, it takes money directly from your checking account.

get this, do you know that most banks will allow you to use your debit card even when you to overdraw your account? why would they do that? because they want you to overdraw your account so that they can hit you with massive overage charges. what sh what should you do? ask your bank or credit union to not allow overage where you you can't get hit with an overage if you overdraw your ktd. another thing, if you can't follow your balance, do everything with cash instead. go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> catch clark noon eastern on saturdays and sundays right here on hln. ten minutes to the hour. it's going to be a good flying

day in very few cities. i'm sorry to say it that way. >> you're right. >> which cities are going to be the rough one? >> it resist ten minutes to 8:00 eastern. ground stoppage at atlanta until 8:30 because of the gusty wind, 25 to 28 miles per hour. it's slowing you down, will be like that most of the day. rain for the morning, same with the low clouds. once that leaves, the wind will still be around for just about everybody in the mid-atlantic through florida. delay-wise, atlanta temperatures not out of the 50s today, atlanta already had the ground stop, watch for an hour or longer delay. charlotte, same thing. d.c. metros including baltimore, probably getting slowed a half hour to an hour, low includeds and rain and breeze. san francisco, low clouds out west, seattle. remnants of ida, coming up in ten minutes, rob. >> wuf rough day for travelers. you probably saw the video

of a woman who fell on tracks in front of an oncoming train. really close. now hear from the train operator. >> y8

okay, everybody stretch. you ready for wednesday? morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. you know, the nation is about to honor its service members who put their lives on the line for the country. you're going to hear what celebrations are planned for this veterans day today. an airline pilot apparently had one too few many before he showed up for work. what happened minutes before takeoff in the cockpit. plus -- >> this was utter chaos as these men tried to open this store. >> reporter: he's talking about a shopper trampled to death on black friday last night. now how lessons from then may have helped prevent it from

happening again. what's interesting about that is they're learning something from the super bowl and how they're going to try to preventd that from happening this year. if you have someone in your life who has served in the military, this is the day to say thank you. it is veterans day, the day meant to honor people who have served the country in the military. many of whom gave the ultimate sacrifice. a u.s. pilot was yanked off a flight minutes before traikoff because a co-worker thought he might be drunk. irwin vermont washington was set to fly from london to chicago but british police arrested him when he flunked the breathalyzer. an airline spokeswoman says the policy is among the strictest and we have no more. the u.s. sniper said nothing before he was executed last night. john allen muhammad died by lethal injection at 9:11 eastern.

he refused to make a final statement. this is an ambulance taking away his remains. some of the victims' relatives witnessed the execution. so did the prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction. >> he died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims. i felt a sense of closure and i hope they did, too. i hope they have some solace by virtue of his execution. >> muhammad got the death sentence for the shooting death of dean harold myers but actually the d.c.-area attacks left ten people dead. his accomplice lee boyd malvo is serving life in prison. u.s. you diplomats will soon meet one on one with north korean officials. that announcement came in an apparent response from pyongyang. the obama administration is careful to describe this as a very limited diplomatic effort. the goal is to resume the similar-party talks to end north korea's nuclear program. the suspect in the ft. hood

shootings is refusing to answer any questions about that day so far. his attorney says that hasan is coherent but not talking about the attack. he's under guard in intensive care. investigators are trying to figure out what provoked the attack. the reason why, what is the reason why. yesterday the city-sized army post put its war preps on pause and 15,000 people attended the memorial for 12 soldiers and one retired soldier shot to death at ft. hood on thursday. president obama promised justice. >> your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. >> the president and first lady placed presidential coins in front of the battlefield crosses. the tributes were met with an eerie silence. >> specialist herd. >> sergeant major! >> specialist hunt.

>> especially when they started calling their names of the soldiers, you know, someone answer and someone didn't answer. that was very sad moment. >> definitely. the shooting left 42 people wounded. don't walk out the door before you look at this this morning. a local news crew was covering a rockslide in polk county, tennessee, when a second was caught on tape. people were warned there might be a second slide. u.s. highway 64 may be closed for a week. and down it came. how are you going to stop that? police affidavits suggest that comments made toward a woman apparently led to the stabbing death of a uconn football player. larry smith has more on this. so this happened outside a dance or nightclub, right? >> yeah. a party was going on.

the accused, revealing one with of howard's teammates disrespected a woman at a dance and that is what authorities believe sparked a fight broken up by police but a second fight started outside the building several minutes later and that's when howard was stabbed. three other people facelesser charges for their role in this incident. none of the football players involved in either fight, though, have been charged. robin? >> thank you for the update on that story. president obama is considering four options for the future of the war in afghanistan. the sources tell us that he's expected to discuss them at a meeting with his war council today. now, they include a possible deployment of about 34,000 more u.s. troops. a new cnn opinion research poll, 42% of americans support sending more troops. only 32% think that afghanistan will eventually have a stable democratic government.

five minutes after the hour. we have a lot of cities that will kind of look soupy today. bob will show you why. >> good morning. i'm watching the clouds now from old da, plus a cold front from basically southern maine down through the eastern seaboard into florida and inland as far as tennessee, kentucky, back into mississippi and alabama, too. here's what's going on. big low pressure region, that's old ida. this is being absorbed by the cold front to the north and also notice the clouds behind me. that is south of bermuda. that energy gets wrapped up you within that circulation off the coast of south carolina this afternoon, tomorrow and over the weekend. we can see a big coastal type storm develop, not a schmomaker but rain and windmaker through mid-atlantic and new england. it will last through saturday afternoon. columbus, xrornlg george, 5.81 inches of rain, atlanta, right around the charlie brown airport, 4.59 inches of rain, birmingham, almost 4. that's how much rain they had. rain continues, heavy at times,

coming through south carolina, stretching through basically north carolina, the entire state seeing rain back into virginia, even towards d.c. let me take you live to walk. here's what the white house looks like, rainy, gloomy. for the entire day, you could see as much as one to three inches of rain today with an additional one to two starting up again tonight through the next couple of days. it's going to be tough for you mid-atlantic all the way to the northeast for the weekend. so what about the radar picture? this is the most active one coming in. it's out of charleston, south carolina. look at hilton head, a lot of rain toward the west, i-95. it's moving slowly shlgs, not severe but heavy rain the rain slide up to the eastern seaboard and pushes inland again. the white shaded areas, thinking about ten inches of rain in the next 48 hours. i don't think it will be that much, but even half that is a lot of rain coming in over the next few days, rob. more in a little bit. >> look how far inland.

that's all from ida? >> this is ida's remnants t. gets absorbs and turns into another storm. more rain through the weekend. a woman went to mcdonald's for lunch, she came home a millionaire. you have to hear how she turned a cup of sweet tea into a sweet playoff.

we always salute our troops, and today we're going it a lot because it is veterans day. here is a salute from two friends to someone that they lost recently. >> we just want to say that we're extremely proud of our military troops. we want to honor them as veterans day. especially in memory of our friend josh meadows who was fallen last month, just very proud to be a part of the marine corps, doing what we're doing, fighting for america's freedom. so thank you all.

>> if you have somebody you you love in the military, go to cnn.com/robin to salute them. i'm sure those sentiments have been shared by the people standing this morning at the vietnam veterans memorial wall. i think that we have a life shot to show you of that as well. it's kind of a gloomy day there, but already early people are out there on this veterans day today looking for names, leaving mementos, and just saying thank you. nikki on facebook says, i just want to thank all military personnel for what you guys do and what you sacrifice. amy says, thank you for protecting my children. sherry, thank you to all our brave and selfless soerls, i want to pay you my respect and send you my love. share your messages on this veterans day, maybe to someone currently in the military or maybe a veteran and you want to talk about them. we'd be glad to hear it, cnn.com/robin, go to the web page and there a facebook link.

senators have planned a hearing to see if the tragedy at ft. hood could have been prevented. new information is coming out about the alleged shooter, major nidal hasan. now, he did not hide his beliefs from the military or even what he thought about muslims in active duty. >> not at all. he wrote it down and put it into a power point presentation. back to 2007, he did this as part of a final project for his residency in psychiatry. but a defense official says instead of a medical lecture hasan talked about islam. now, the power point presentation i was alluding to published in "the washington post" frequently sited the koran and explained concepts like jihaded. he recommended muslims be allowed to claim conscientious objector status so they did not have to fight fellow muslims and the military could avord void what he called adverse effects. >> i wonderwe heard major hasan

communicated with a radical muz lick cleric. >> the cleric you're referreding to is known for encouraging muslims to kill u.s. troops. senior investigative troops say hasan communicated with him at least 20 times. last night the pentagon said it had no idea until after the ft. hood shootings the communications were with tuturn to a jointer terrorism task force last year, but the investigator who looked into them determined they were for a research paper that hasan was writing. apparently, robin, never sent the information any further up the chain. >> richard, thank you. that's the latest on the investigation. we certainly are following it this morning. do you remember the walmart employee trampled to death by a huge crowd last year when the store opened on black friday, the day after thanksgiving? well, they're trying to make sure this does can not happen again this year. let's talk about the changes. our money expert jennifer westhoven is all over this one. >> good morning. walmart wants to make sure that when you think about black

friday you think about getting your crazy deals on and that safety is not an issue at all. that it's all handled. the "new york times" reports that walmart hired crowd experts who have done events like the olympics and the super bowl just to make sure they have different plans for every store. but the biggest change that you would see -- and this could make a difference if you're somebody who likes those doorbusters -- instead of waiting outside and then everybody stampedes into the tvs and pcs when with the doors suddenly open, walmarts are going to open a lot earlier, thanksgiving overnight, so you can meander into the store whenever you want and there will be a line inside. you get in that line. the line is supervised so nobody will be cutting. and people get aggressive when that starts to happen. when 5:00 a.m. rolls around, the line is inside, everybody is in place. things are calm. i think it will be a change but it will still mean you get the deals but you won't have to wait outside in the cold.

if you you have a home, you'll like this story. home prices a good sign that they could be bottoming out, right, that the relentless march down could be over. that's good news in a bad economy. i mean being look, it's not a great turnaround, but if the march downwarded were over, that would be nice. a realtors group that for two quarters in a month, similar months now, home prices are liesing to nearly 180,000ed for a single family home, up $7,000, even in neighborhoods that have been hard hit like miami and ft. lauderdale. >> good for anybody selling and anybody who feels underwater. it could be the final chapter of a bizarre love triangle between star-crossed astronauts. what's ahead now for lisa nowak after she pleaded guilty to attacking a rival lover. by the way, you get to hear from that woman, the person she's accused of attacking. plus, sammy sosa insists he's not trying to lighten his

skin. but there is the picture of what he looks like now on one side and what he looked like before on the other. so we'll talk about it.

> a former astronaut is going probation for her attack on a are romantic rival. lisa nowak pleaded guilty for

reduced charges for attacking a woman in an airport parking lot. police say she drove houston to atlanta and followed colleen shipman to her car. shipman says she's haunted by what happened. >> i knew in my heart when lisa nowak attacked me that she was going to kill me. it was in her eyes. a blood-chilling expression of limitless rage and glee. >> in the plea, lisa nowak cannot have any contact with shipman. she was sentenced to a year probation, 50 hours community service. she was facing serious jail time if she had been convicted of the original charges. you ever look at some videotape of a player when they're playing their sport and then maybe a few years after they retire, you're, like, whoa, must be sitting on the couch a little bit. oh, they've aged a little bit. well, it's to be expected. so what's the deal with sammy sosa. he looks different right now.

there are stories about why. >> you see the pictures. we're kind of like, wow, it's shocking. he is denying he's using any kind of cream to lighten his skin, but do photographs lie? you be the judge. this is before and this is after. the soon to be 41-year-old looking dramatically different than he did just six months ago. sosa says it's a cosmetic cream he has used forrees to soften his skin and adds that combined with the bright tv lights at the latin grammy awards, where the photo on the right was taken in las vegas, it just made his skin look lighter. by the way, sosa when asked would not give the name of the cream he's been using. >> i wonder, too, if it could be just like he's not out in the sun like he was in the game. >> that will be his next reasoning for why it's -- robin, from a college dropout to a multimillionaire, all those hours play poker paid off, the youngest winner ever of the world series of poker getting a purse worth more than $8.5

million. get this, he entered the tournament with a backer paying the $10,000 entry fee in exchange for half his winnings. >> oh, wow! >> it may be the best investment ever. >> wow. >> that's pretty cool. a special veterans day salute in chicago. the blackhawks will wear a special jersey, auctioned online with proceeds going to the uso of illinois. joe montana, guess how much he is selling his 500-acre property for? $49 million. it would set a record for sonoma county, california. here's the thing. if you could put 20% down, get a 6% 30-year fixed rate mortgage for the balance, 39.2 million, your monthly payment would be only $235,000. >> monthly! >> that's a month. it's a pretty impressive property, 9700 square-foot home, guesthouse, equestrian stables. >> good to be joe. >> yeah. it was a funeral fit for the

king of pop, but wait until you hear how much michael jackson's family spent for that funeral. plus, a liquor store manager gave one of his employees a bonus that didn't just make his day. it saved his life.

the nation is honoring its military members, past and pren present on veterans day, today. president obama will take part in a wreath laying ceremony. many other countries honor their veterans as well. for them, the holiday primarily marks the signing of a truce. a white house staffer is quitting after being caught in a war of words. anita dunn is quitting, she accused fox news of being biased. an amber alert has been issued for this 5-year-old in north carolina. shania davis. her mother told officers she last saw her daughter early

yesterday morning. police say they found no evidenced of foul play. they've been searching the woods nearby. those were the headlines. welcome back. good morning, sleepy wednesday. i'm robin meade. thousands of people gathered yesterday to remember the victims of the ft. hood shootings. there are new developments in the investigation we should cover this morning. richard lui starts us off with that. >> almost a week since the incident. fbi agents showing up at the texas mosque where the alleged shooter major nidal hasan worshipped. they wouldn't say what they were looking for, but they searched through a trash bin outside the islamic community center of greater killeen. the mosque president had to leave the memorial service to sign what appeared to be a search warrant. leaders at the mosque have condemned this attack. >> the fbi said that they think major hasan acted alone. it wasn't a conspiracy. and his attendance at the mosque is part of that reasoning? how goes that? >> interesting point. a terrorism expert says

jihadists usually try to blend in so they do not attract attention. but hasan often wore traditional muslim clothing li ining in thi and attended prayers daily. one profiler agrees with this fbi theory. >> a lot of people are jumping to the conclusion because this man spouted islamic ideology that this is a terrorist attack. he was simply a lone guy who had issues, problems, psycho path ick behaviors that escalated and he took it out on his workmates like most of them do. >> talking to cnn there. many who knew hasan at washington, d.c., got the idea he was a loaner. they say he had few, if any, friends and they were unable to match him with a wife. robin? >> interesting. richard, thank you. new laws to protect gays and lesbians in salt lake city got support that might surprise some. the mormon church is backing ordinances making it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing and employment.

church leaders say that the laws passed by the city council won't impose on traditional marriage. last year the church came under fire for its effort to pass a california initiative banning gay marriage. the woman who fell onto the train tracks and was saved at the last second is grateful for whoever helped save her. here is the video of her falling. people on the platform are flapping their armed to get the train driver's attention and the train driver stopped in the nick of time. >> the people were waving but they were waving a little bit too much and they were with reall really, really, close to the yellow line. that's telling me, slow your train down. >> i kept yelling at her to just get up bei, you know. >> what were you saying? >> just get up, get up. >> the woman who fell said she did not think she was drunk when she got to the station, but she admitted she had four 22-ounce beers. >> meet the rockefeller christmas tree. live pictures in its natural

state. this 76-foot-tall norway spruce will be cut down today. they got the crane above it. it's going to be put in place tomorrow. wow. so it must be kind of close to rockefeller center. it's about 90 miles from the city in connecticut. so there it is. >> nice. i'm still doing the math on the 88 ounces. probably 132 pounds. >> how many hours would that take her to burn that off? >> a lot. what's going on? good morning. let me show you what's going on. the main story is the travel impact from old tropical storm ida, a depression yesterday and now just a massive rain, a big ball of energy rolling off the coastline. look at all the rain south carolina through north carolina, stretches way into virginia, ends up essentially around philadelphia. but we're going to see a lot of rain over the next few days. let me show you how much. one of the computer models is thinking, the white shades popping up near washington,

d.c., norfolk, virginia, ten inches of rain. if you only see half of that, you'll see two to three inches of rain near philly, closing in on new york and about five around washington, charlottesville, all the way back down into eastern north carolina. so that's the heaviest rain potential. it's all because of that coastal storm that is going to develop. since we'll see all the rain, we also had the flash flood watches up there, all the areas in dark green. most of virginia, north carolina, down through south carolina, brand new warning popping up right here. that's for charlotte county, it's going to be a tough go for you for the next couple of days. look at the rain shield falling just shy of new york city. the darker blueses, the greens, actually where the rain is hitting the ground the rest not touching the ground yet. big thunderstorms around i-95, closing in on hilton head. look at the rain stretching into raleigh-durham, going to get a heavy batch for the afternoon. dry for the middle of the country, but then you get out west, another low. look at the clouds braped up with this.

a little light snow falling across right now across seer neve, light snow around the cascades. central oregon. the whole thing moving into northern idaho, montana. looking for about six to 12 inches of snow above 5,000 feet in western montana. live look at central park, here's the way it goes, clouds in all day long. gusty winds today, too, out of the east, 20 to 25 miles per hour possibility. you're going to see delays at the airport because of that. we'll talk about the rest of those delays in just a bit. you'll see a rain that will be overnight tonight for new york. >> i'm surprised how many leaves have hundred onto the trees so far. >> i think the wind will knock them down just a touch, unfortunately. >> thank you. last night on "the joy behar show" she welcomed actress carrie fish heer. she was very candid about her past problems with substance abuse. >> you went into rehab at 29, right? what kind of drugs were you doing? >> what do you have? yeah, yours.

no. i was stealing medication from people's medicine cabinets. >> like you'd be visiting their house and go in there? >> or the other way to do it -- i can't tell because then it will give people ideas. i got very clever at it anyway. >> i don't know if everybody is as smart as you. so how did you do it? >> real estate. going hou ining house hunting, your bathroom. >> i wonder how the people at cochran feel about that right now. >> catch "the joy behar show" 9:00 p.m. eastern. a teenager spent two nights trapped on a floating chunk of ice. rescuers were with able to reach him, but not before something went dangerously wrong to them. what children had to do to escape a fire at their school.

in our salute to the troops today, we're doing salutes a lot because it is veterans day. here is second lieutenant with his shout-out. >> hey, robin. this is second lieutenant elizabeth from ft. benning, georgia. i'd like to give a shout-out to the young men and women in afghanistan and iraq. please come home safe. without your smile, the world will be walking around with a frown every day. i like you, ms. robin meade. keep me positive and motivated. >> second lieutenant elizabeth, thank you. thanks to all of our service members past and present on this

veterans day. richard on facebook wrote, i want to salute my grandfathers, richard a.cooke. nice salute. arlene says my bumper xiker reads, home of the free because of the brave. thank you all vets. she says. share your messages with us. there's a link on our web page, cnn.com/robin, you can get to facebook right from there. happening right now, a wreath laying ceremony at the world war ii memorial in washington, d.c. people have gathered there to honor the more than 400,000 u.s. service members killed in that war. at 11:00 eastern, president obama will take part in a wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national ceremony. thanks to all of our veterans

alive and past for our freedom. >> what a survival story for one teenager, two nights trapped on a ice floe in the arctic. he was forceded to shoot a polar bear. rescuers found him monday but four of them got stuck for one night when the ice shifted. they ended up dragging their boat about 2 1/2 miles across the ice. a senator came out swinging with a sweeping plan to keep your money safe with some tougher regulations, though. the senate banking committee chairperson, christopher dodd, says this has been a long time coming. see how you feel about what he's proposing. >> you know, we'll see if this goes over well in congress, but dodd is basically saying, look at what happened. look at the economic collapse. in his view, banks cannot be trusted to oversee themselves. he thinks the federal reserve did not fulfill its responsibilities so his idea is, he says, let's take away their oversight power and instead give the job to some new government

agencies. hmm, what do you think about that? that's from "the washington post." dodd says it's necessary to protect the economy. >> we saw over the last number of years when they took on consumer protection responsibilities and regulation of bank holding companies it was an abysmal failure. >> that senator chuck schumer standing behind him. but this plan not the same thing as what the white house has been thinking. the president wants the federal reserve in the lead when it comes to banking reform as long as it steps up the job. this is a brazen heist. imagine a ring of thieves around the globe in 280 cities standing by with phony atm cards and in 12 hours they swipe away and steal $9 million. sound like "oceans 11" for or something. those are the allegations from the acting u.s. attorney in atlanta. it indicted eight russian and eastern european people on allegations of computer hacking,

only one has been arrested. the other seven are still at large. robin, back to you. >> thank you. it's a common grocery store debate. which is best for you, the fresh or the frozen veggies? we're going beyond the surface to ice some conventional wisdom. >> fresh versus frozen produce, which is better? if you think fresh, think again. it turns out that frozen produce is just as nutritious as fresh produce because frozen vegetables and fruit are harvested at their peak. the nutrition is preserved throughout the freezing process. you can lose those vitamins to water if you cook them in large amounts. i would suggest that you cook them always in small amounts by steaming. canned vegetables are usually very high in sodium. canned fruit, unless you get it packed in its own juice or in water, skip it. you you want to get as many

colorful will vegetables and fruit in your diet as possible to protect you from chronic disease.

more than 400 children were with able to escape a dangerous fire at their elementary near portland, oregon, yesterday. the fire officials say that it started in an area used for science projects. >> my class had to actually get on our knees somewhat and crawl because we were with so close t >> all the teachers and administrators got out as well. classes are canceled for the rest of the week. rescuers had to be called in to free a kitty in a sticky situation. she managed to get her head stuck in a three-inch drain pipe. the kids who found her tried their best to get her out, though i don't know that the

kitty liked it. >> he was really, really hurt, and we had to pour oil on it to try to get it out, but he couldn't really get out. >> tried to pour oil. animal control officers gave it a try. they did get the kitty out and they say the kitty was not hurt. she is mad, isn't she? i don't blame her. michael vick gets a win in court. larry smith is here to tell you about that. so somebody didn't want him to have his bonus money? >> yeah. exactly. these contracts, nfl contracts, they get around the salary cap because when you have a giant bonus you can kind of prorate that over the length of the contract. that's what they did. a judge already ruled that vick could keep the more than $16 million in bonus money paid. but now an appeal judge has backed that decision, much to the chagrin of the nfl and his former team the atlanta falcons. the ruling said vick had earned the money before his conviction in 2007 on dogfighting charges.

he served a 23-month sentence in prison. now back with the philadelphia eagles. an nfl spokesman says the decision will likely change the way the league writes bonuses into player contracts. shaquille o'neal oes rocky marriage seems to be coming to an end again. shonny o'neal has filed for divorce. the couple was married almost seven years and have four children together. shaq filed for divorce in 2007 but the two apparently had reconciled. until now. guys will never learn. officials read your blogs as well. dwight howard has been fined $15,000 for his disparaging remarks on officiating on his blog. the all-star center and olympic gold medalist was complaining after he fouled out of a game in detroit last week. afterwards he played just 16 minutes in that game and said it just was unfair. now he'll pay a check for his words. >> larry, thanks. some banks are letting their

customers spend as much as they want. all right. well, hln money expert clark howard says that it may cost you way more in bank fees than you're willing to pay. >> pay. >> a lot of people, because they've been burned by credit cards have switched to debit cards. but when you use it, it takes money directly from your checking account. do you know that most banks will allow you to use your card even when it will cause you to overdraw your account. why? because they want you to overdraw your account so they can hit you with massive charges. ask your bank or credit union to not permit overages, where you can't get hit if you were to overdraw your account. if you can't track your

ambulanbalance, do everything with cash. with more ways to keep your wallet in shape, go to cnn.com. >> catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays. ten minutes to the hour. let's talk to bob about our travelers. where do you see problems? >> atlanta, again, the businees airport in the united states. rain showers are heavy at times. the fog is there, low clouds are there and wind later today. an hour or more delays in atlanta, charlotte, too. d.c. metro, low clouds, rain up there. about a half hour delay. then san francisco, the low

clouds are in place already. that could extend to an hour. >> thanks. what could be better than a raise or holiday bonus from the boss? one guy has his manager to thank for saving his life.

good morning. how are you doing? it's wednesday right in the middle of the week. thank you for joining us. here's what's going on today. the nation is about to honor its service members who put their lives on the line for their country. you're going to hear what celebrations are planned for today. a pilot apparently had one too many before he showed up for work. what happens minutes before takeoff in that cockpit. plus -- >> this was utter chaos. >> he's talking about a shopper

tramabled to death in walmart last year. now, some lessons from the super bowl may prevent that from happening again. first though -- ♪ if someone in your life has served in the military, this is the day to say thank you. it is veteran's day. the day is meant to honor those who have served in the military. in about two hours, we're expecting president obama to honor veterans at the tomb of the unknowns. ♪ very pretty and haunting piece of tape. a u.s. pilot was taken off a flight minutes before takeoff because a co-worker thought he was drunk. british police arrested him when

he flunked the breathalyzer. this morning on cnn, a former ntsb official was asked if more regulations are needed to keep drunk pilots out of the cockpit. >> the thing to remember on this is that this pilot was -- you know, outed or turned in the by the flight crew itself. that's really the line of defense. these flight crews are extraordinarily responsible. if they see one of their own members not capable of flying, of performing their own tasks, they called him out. it was the right thing to do. >> a spokesperson says united's policy is among the strictest in the industry. the master mind behind the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation in 2002 said nothing before his execution last night. john allen muhammad died by leathal injection last night.

he refused to make a final statement. some victim's relatives witnessed the execution, so did the prosecutor who won the conviction. >> he died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims. i felt a sense of closure and i hope they did, too. >> he got the death sentence for the shooting debt of dean harold myers. his accomplice is serving life in prison. the suspect in the ft. hood shooting is refusing to answer questions about that day. his attorney says he is coherent, but not talking about the attack. investigators are trying to f figure out what this happened. yesterday, the city sized army post put war preps on pause and

15,000 people attended the memorial for the 12 soldiers and one retired soldier shot to death on thursday. president obama promised justice. >> your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. >> the president and first lady then placed presidential coins in front of the victim's battlefield crosses. the tributes were met with silence. >> especially when they starting calling the names of the soldiers, you know, someone and -- that was very sad moment. >> the shooting left 42 people wounded. google maps has launched its flu shot finder.

google warns you that they're still gathering info and the service is not comprehensive and it won't be able to tell you if a provider has run out. their suggestion is that you call ahead. police affidavits suggest that comments made toward a woman apparently led to the stabbing death of a uconn football player. this is the latest on the investigati investigation. >> he's the man that is going to appear in court of friday accused of murdering howard. one of the teammates disrespected a woman at a school-sponsored dance and that is what believed sparked the fight broken up by police, but it apparently restarted outside the building several minutes later and that is when howard was stabbed. three others face charges. none of the football players involved in either fight have been charged. are we alone in the

universe? well, is there alien life out there? the catholic church wants to know. the vatican called in several extra terrestrial experts. the church. the group discussed the orgins of life and if it existed in the cosmos. >> just kind of pan left to our sports department, yeah, i'd say there's something else out there. no offense. >> i think some find it surprising that it was the catholic church doing this. six minutes after the hour. so far in the skies today, all we have are a bunch of clouds and rain. good morning. >> i'm going to start to the west coast because the clouds are continuing to come in. we're following two storms moving in over the next few days. one is occurring now. it's a cold front dropping down into a stationary front in

nevada. but the clouds there california, nevada, lower parts of oregon and idaho. there's another storm towards the north dropping in by tomorrow afternoon. the rain is in blue, the white is snow cover. i think we're going to start seeing this mount up, especially northern parts of oregon and parts of montana as well. the purple areas, that's about a foot of snow. mainly above 5,000 feet elevation. another winter round coming in tomorrow. it's something we'll be following over the next few days. the east coast, if you're traveling, it's going to be around around, charlotte a and raleigh. heavy at times. the yellows, the greens, the heaviest rain. the red is very heavy rainfall. it's stretching into towards

eastern north carolina, so the flash flood watches are up there. those are the areas in green. i think we'll see about five to six inches of rain today through the next couple of days. it is going to be a tough one and the radar picture pretty much ends in northern jersey. the capitol looking nice, but the clouds are in. rain will be on and off today. heavy at times. we'll have that forecast for your in just a bit. >> thank you. black friday frenzy is just around the corner. how many weeks away? not many. walmart is making major changes to prepare for the big day and your safety. and new information on the suspect in the ft. hood shootings. what he said in a controversial powerpoint presentation.

in our salute to the troops,

today, we're doing them a lot during these few hours because it is veteran's day. here's a shoutout from a mom to her daughter's boyfriend. >> i just want to give a shout out to the third id out of ft. benning. by daughter's boyfriend, get back safe, we miss you. >> very sweet. if you have somebody in the service and want to salute them, we'd love to help you. also, right now, if you want to send a veteran's day salute, go to our facebook page. get there by going to cnn.com/robin. the power is back on this morning after a major blackout affecting millions. one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams had some problems. rio de janeiro had a standstill and some are worried because the

olympics are coming there. what does a porsche have in common with a line of rubber shoes? a legal spat. porsche claims crocs violated the line by giving them them is same name as a luxury roadster. do you remember the horrible story of a walmart employee who was trampled to death on black friday a year ago by a huge crowd trying to get the sales? well, there are new protection ins place for this year. jennifer westhoven is going to detail that. >> for now, we're talking about walmart. they want to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, but also, that you know you're absolutely safe on black friday so you don't have to worry about safety, but the crazy deals.

"the new york times" reports that walmart hired crowd experts and their biggest change, it's going to be around those hot, hot door busters. so if you're somebody who likes to get in the mix, you want to take a listen to how things are going to change. instead of everybody being outside and then stampeding in when the doors opened, instead, most walmarts are going to be open thanksgiving and overnight on that thursday night early friday morning, so you'll be able to go into the actual store when you want and get into a supervised line. that's also really important because it means people aren't going to cut each other in line. that is something that can get others very aggressive and can change things. then at 5:00 a.m., when the sale starts, you're already in line, it's calm and supervised, you're inside the store. if you've got a home, you're going to like this story. home prices could be bottoming out.

in a new report, realtors say home prices went up two quarter i s in a row. it takes the median price to about $50,000. robin? >> i'm glad to see it's bottoming out meaning we're going upward. thank you. it could be the final chapter of a bizarre love try ankle between star cross eed astronauts. and why sammy sosa says people think he looks so different.

senators have planned a hearing next week to see if the tragedy at ft. hood could have been prevented and new information is coming out about the alleged shooter. richard lui joins us. he did not hide what he thought about muslims in active duty. >> he put it into a powerpoint presentation in 2007. a defense official says that instead of a medical lecture, hasan talked about islam. the presentation, which was published in the "washington post," frequently cited the koran and explained concepts like jihad.

>> i wonder if he described what he meant by adverse events. we also heard he was also communicating with a radical muslim cleric. >> he's known for encouraging muslims to kill u.s. troops and senior investigative officials say hasan communicated with him at least 20 times. last night, the pentagon said it had no idea until after the shootings. the communications were turned over to a joint terrorism task force last year, but the investigator who looked into them determined they were for a research paper hasan was writing and never sent the information any further. >> thank you. that's the latest on the investigation. we are following it this morning. a former astronaut got a year's probation for her attack on a romantic rival. lisa nowak pleaded guilty

yesterday for confronting ining shipman. nowak apologized to shipman in court, but shipman says she believes she escaped a horrible death the night of the attack. you ever notice a few years after somebody retires from sports, oh, they've kind of aged a bit, oh, well, maybe they're just not as active anymore. what's the deal with sammy sosa because he looks a lot different. >> usually, it's because you've lost hair or have grayed. he says he's been using a cosmetic cream to soften his skin for years, so why is it this is the difference? the soon to be 41-year-old looking dramatically different. he says the cream combined with the bright tv lights of the

latin grammy awards, the combination made his skin look lighter. when asked the name of the cream, he declined to give that name. from a college dropout to multimillionaire, playing all those hours of poker paid off. getting a purse worth more than $8.5 million. this is the part i love. cada entered the tournament with a backer paying the fee in exchange for half his winnings. $10,000 in, $4 million back. i love that. a special veteran's day salute tonight in chicago. the blackhawks will wear special camouflaged jerseys. joe montana is selling his 500-acre property for $49

million. it would set a record for sonoma county, california. if you put 20% down and got a morni mortgage, your balance is 39.2 million. >> piece of cake. >> that's robin meade money. >> whatever. thanks. a month. >> is he getting a bigger house? he's downsizing. >> only 100,000 a month. this travel brought to you by orbitz. a few delays now. south carolina here, here's north carolina. georgia, little bit of light drizzle, low clouds. right now, we have delays in atlanta and charlotte, but both about a half hour. one hour or more, philly,

washington, orlando. more in a bit. a womanag turned her lunch into a million dollars?

the new york stock exchange just opened for business and to honor the nation's veterans today, a member of the u.s. marine corp. is ringing the opening bell. so is wall street looking at the stronger opening day? we'll find out in a few seconds. an amber alert has been issued for 5-year-old shania davis in north carolina. the girl's mom tells officer she last saw her early yesterday morning. police say they found in evidence of foul play. 300 h1n1 vaccines have arrived at the guantanamo bay military prison, but the pentagon says no detainees will be getting them until the

facility's high priority troops and health care workers have been vaccinated. so far, there aren't enough doses to do that. a shooting at the drug testing center ended in a murder-suicide. a woman was killed and two of her co-workers injured. police say that the woman's husband opened fire on the office before turning the gun on himself. if you're just now waking up, where you been? it's 31 minutes past the hour. it is veteran's day today and we're getting so many comments from your fellow viewers here on facebook with your wishes, your well wishes for our veterans. richard says -- eddie writes -- you got comments you want to make? you can go to cnn.com/robin. there's an "f," just click it right there, it will take you to

the right page. is senate could finish its health care bill by the holidays. that's what senate majority leader harry reid said yesterday, according to "new york times." there has been speculation he can't get enough votes for a public option, which is included in the house bill that passed on saturday. new this hour, the attorney for the alleged ft. hood shooter is explaining why he took that case. the retired army colonel tells cnn that he takes pride in defending anyone in uniform. >> first and foremost, i share and extend my sympathies to all of the victims that were involved in this case, but i'd also caution and remind everyone how important it is that we ensure that as we go through a pretrial and trial process, whether it's within the military, outside of the military, that we remember why we all wear the uniform, the

important rights we seek to protect and that is the right to a fair trial. >> so far, major nidal hasan has refused to talk to federal agents and only met with his attorney for about 30 minutes. a spiritual leader who communicated with major hasan is wanted now. police in yemen want to know if he has ties to al-qaeda. he was arrested there once on suspicion of giving religious approval on kidnappings. a u.s. government source says they e-mailed each other many times over several months. the woman who fell right on to the train tracks as the train was coming was saved at the last second and now, she's grateful for the people who saved her. here she is, falling right on to the tracks. the train driver stopped in time. just in time.

>> people were waving, but waving a little bit too much and they were really, really close to the yellow line, which they're not supposed to be, so that's telling me to slow down. >> i kept yelling at her to just get up -- >> what were you saying? >> just get up. >> the woman who fell said she did not think she was drunk, but admitted she had four, 22 ounce beers. so that's huge. >> 88 ounces. >> what is a normal one? >> 12. >> 34 minutes past the hour. kind of a rainy, yucky start because of what used to be ida. >> what we're seeing right now is just the transfer of energy off the coast, could get worse over the next couple of days. won't be a named storm, but the energy is still out there. most of it is riding through

south carolina now. it's going to merge with another area of low pressure off the coast, so the end result, pretty hefty lows. it's going to throw a lot of wind and rain at you. how much? let me show you what one of the computer models is thinking. it is pretty drastic. even if this is overdone just a touch, that's central virginia in towards washington d.c. metro back towards north carolina. those white shades, it's ten inches of rain in the next two days. even if it's only half of that, that's still five to six inches of rain. flood concerns are definitely out there. areas shaded in dark green from central virginia to the carolinas. heavy rain is falling now. you can see it right around the charleston metro area, stretching down to hilton head and savannah. >> thank you.

congress last night, they're putting investors in a good mood on veteran's day. susan lisovicz is at the new york stock exchange. good morning. >> good morning, robin, and why they're in a good mood is because both federal reserve officials say that the economy's return to growth is not enough yet to get the fed to raise rates. investors are happy to have rates as cheap as they are, so we're seeing an early morning rally. but investors aren't so keen on shares of aig. they're under pressure, this after the ceo reportedly told the board he's stepping down after just three months on the job. "the wall street journal" says he's frustrated with the government's overseers. we, taxpayers, essentially own 80% of aig. he agreed to consider his

resignation. certainly got their attention. macy's says it lost $35 million last quarter, but that's not as bad as expected. bloomingdales sales were strong. it's veteran's day. the nyse marking the occasion with two minutes of silence before the bell. this is the 91st veteran's day and later on, there will be a cake cutting ceremony on the trading floor in honor of the 234th birthday of the u.s. marine corp. >> marines, it was yesterday, right? but they're doing this today on veteran's day. >> right. and when there's cake, yes, we will partake. >> susan, thank you very much. a fraternity member ends up in the hospital and two men are

facing criminal charges as a result. later, it was a shootout that killed 17 iraqi civilians. well now, startling new reports on what an american security company did after the shootings.

today, we're doing salutes a lot because it is veteran's day. here's a salute from a soldier that we met when i was visiting some troops at ft. benning. >> i want to give a salute to sergeant keith who's in iraq. we're all rooting for you to come back safe and we'll see you when you get back.

>> all right. and if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute, go to cnn.com/robin. by the way, here are live pictures at the vietnam memorial. veteran's day is to honor those who have served and some who have fallen, and so many people, even though the weather is really drizzly and dreary today, have come out very early to find loved ones' names on the wall. for our veterans no longer with us and those who are watching, thank you for your service. two men are facing criminal charges after an apparent case of fraternity hazing. 19-year-old nathan ericson was hospitalized with a potentially deadly blood-alcohol level. he was a new member of a fraternity at drake. in text messages, he said he was being forced to drink. the fraternity has suspended

three of its members. new this morning, your gifts for this holiday season are likely to be meant for someone else. a report says that 36% of americans plan to regift. that is five percentage points more than last year. about a third say they're going to spend less money on the gifts than they did last year. please, that's only the amount of people willing to admit it, right? u.s. diplomat wills soon meet one-on-one with north korean officials. that announcement came from a request from pyonyang. the obama administration describes this as a limited effort. the goal is to resume the six-party talks. a janitor is being called a hero for saving lives in a suicide bomb attack. >> that's right.

a christian janitor at this school you see in these pictures, saving the lives of hundreds of muslim girls and he's now a national hero. also, police say a pastor is admitting to shooting and killing a teenager. the events surrounded his confession and then a little dress got a woman in big trouble. there it is. there's the dress. her little number caused at a university. that in about 15. >> wow. okay. thank you. some banks are letting their customers spend as much they want, but clark howard warns it may cost you way more in bank fees than you're willing to pay. >> a lot of people, because they've been burned by credit cards, have switched to debit cards. that's where it has a visa or mastercard logo on it, but when you use it, it takes money directly from your checking

account. get this. do you know that most banks will allow you to use your debit card even when it will cause you to overdraw your account. why? because they want you to overdraw your account so they can hit you with massive overage charges. ask your bank to prevent this. the other thing, if you can't track your balance, do everything with cash instead. i'm clark howard. for more ways for you to keep your wallet shipshape, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> he's the guy to help you to save more, spend less. catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays right here on hln. murder suspect drew peterson wants you to see his house during the trial. how he hopes to put his home on tv and make some money.

46 minutes past the hour. if you're just joining us,

you've been sleeping in. well, a private u.s. security firm allegedly wanted to bribe its way after its guards shot iraqi civilians. "the new york times" quotes former blackwater executives saying the company had $1 million to buy iraqi officials' silence. an investigation called the shootings unjustified. the firm calls the report baseless. five guards are now facing manslaughter charges, but they say they were just defending themselves. michael vick got a win in court, so i guess that means he gets to keep a lot of money. >> he needs all the money he can get. a judge already had ruled that vick can keep more than $16 million in bonus money paid by the atlanta falcons, but now, an appeal judge has backed that decision. the ruling says that vick had already earned the money before

his dog fighting charges. an nfl spokesman says that will likely change the way the league writes bonuses into player contracts. not the first time this has happened. shaquille o'neal's rocky marriage seems to be coming to an end, again. shonny has filed for divorce. they have four children together. shaq filed for divorce in 2007, but the two apparently had reconciled. league officials read your blogs as well. dwagt howard has been fined $15,000 for his comments on officiating. he was complaining after he fouled out of a game last week after playing just 16 minutes. an ole miss pep song is being banned for being devicive. the schools band has played "from dixie with love" for

years, but sometimes -- is chanted. some consider it a limitation on freedom of speech. ole miss has long struggled with these issues, so no more of that song. >> thank you. a murder suspect reportedly wants to auction off his home to tv stations so they can use it to broadcast during his trial. an attorney for former illinois cop, drew peterson, tells a chica"chicago sun-times" column that will pay for his legal expenses. he is awaiting trial for allegedly killing his third wife. he pleaded not guilty. if i remember this correctly, this is the guy who's fourth wife is still -- they exhumed the body of his third wife and that's where the charges have come from.

he's one of those guys, never saw a woman he didn't like. you can use his house if you want. hi, bob. happening. any traveling today, southeast, mid-atlantic all the way to d.c. metro will have problems with the low clouds, wind and rain. right now a half hour delay in atlanta. that's what we have. but it will probably build because the winds pick up later this afternoon. charlotte up, about an hour delay for you too. rain first, wind second. d.c./baltimore, light rain, then the wind out there. out west, low clouds. watch out for half hour, maybe an hour delay. slowdown in seattle, too. we'll talk about that in a half hour. you can meet the rockefeller center tree right now in its natural state. there it is. the 76-foot tall norway spruce will be cut down today. it will be brought from connecticut to new york city. and then the tree goes up tomorrow. boy, they don't waste any time,

do they? last night on "the joy behar show," she welcomed actress carrie fisher who was very candid about her failed marriages. >> your second husband left you for another man. of course you're bipolar. >> what's great about being bipolar, all that would feel bad for just anybody, but i get it dialed up. >> i know you do. and you turned all of that into comedy, which is the greatest gift that you can give yourself, in my opinion. >> it's the best alchemy there is. what, do i want to feel bad? >> catch "the joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern on hln. you probably saw the video of a woman who fell on the train tracks in front of the train. very close call. the train stopped right on time. hear from the operator of the train. hi, robin. this is specialist justin agerson. i want to send a special hello

to a friend oversees, private paul britain. stay safe over there.